‘Our Favourite Places started as a side project but it’s become a really big part of our studio work.’

Claire and her design studio (Studio Eleven) have made a dogged commitment to promoting the city and making people aware of all the great stuff going on. They have become the unofficial cultural tourist board and from this many other great projects have come about. Transforming many people’s experience of Sheffield along the way. ‘The 'Our’ in 'Our Favourite Places’ becomes much more than our studio it has become a city wide 'Our Favourite Places’. Having an interest and making that your job – commitment is really important in that’.

About the speaker

Claire is a partner at Eleven link, a small creative studio in Kelham Island. It feels apt this productive little studio is based in the heart of Sheffield’s former industrial quarter, busying themselves on creative projects for clients across the UK and helping to raise the profile of the city they love.

Eleven are the team behind Our Favourite Places, a self-initiated project that shouts about cultural life in Sheffield. They publish guidebooks and city tours, make films and hold events – their aim is to let others in on what makes Sheffield special, bring perceptions of the city up to date, and encourage people to visit. They also run the Our Favourite Places website, an online culture guide written by in-the-know locals that receives around 50,000 page views every month.

Eleven wanted to make a difference to how Sheffield was perceived. To shout about this unconventionally beautiful city and the creative people who call it home. And hopefully its starting to have an impact. Our Favourite Places was named as one of the Guardian’s Top 10 UK Guides, and has also been featured in It’s Nice That and Design Sponge.

With a new website just launched link, a new guidebook being written, and a couple of events in planning, 2018 is shaping up to be a fantastically creative (and busy) year for the OFP team. And they want everyone to enjoy it!

It is an even more intimate gathering this month with only 40 tickets being released so be sure to get in there. Tickets released Monday 21st at 09:00. We are meeting in the woods! At the JC Graves Discovery Centre at Ecclesall Woods with coffee being served by the Woodland Coffee Stop. We look forward to seeing you there.